Owners expected to ratify deal today

Baseball owners are expected to ratify a new labor contract when they meet in Chicago today, a stark contrast to their four-month deliberation before approving their agreement in 1996.

On Friday, commissioner Bud Selig embraced the new deal, calling it ''historical.'' Six years ago, he refused to publicly discuss the agreement for more than two months, then submitted it to owners without any recommendation.

When teams voted that Nov. 6, they rejected the contract 18-12. Twenty-one days later -- after Selig recommended approval -- owners ratified the deal in a 26-4 vote, with Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City and Oakland opposed.

''A long and winding road has come to an end,'' Selig said that day, speaking at the same Chicago airport hotel where owners are to meet Thursday.

This time, he immediately acknowledged the tentative agreement, appearing one hour after it was completed at a news conference in New York with union head Donald Fehr.

''This has been a long, very difficult and winding road spanning over three-plus decades,'' Selig said.

Nothing has been signed yet, and negotiators for players and owners are drafting a memorandum of understanding, which they hope to complete by next week. The executive board of the players' association also must ratify the agreement.

''It is our intention to ratify before the season is over,'' union lawyer Michael Weiner said.

The deal, which expires in December 2006, increases the amount of shared local revenue from 20 percent to 34 percent, institutes a luxury tax with fixed thresholds from 2003 to 2006, increases the minimum salary from $200,000 to $300,000 and provides for mandatory random testing for illegal steroids, which will start next season on a survey basis.